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2011 40th International Pokka 500 km
/ |gt500poleteam = MOLA Racing |gt500poletime = 2:08.206 |gt300pole = Takagi / Matsuura |gt300polenation = |gt300poleteam = Autobacs Racing Team Aguri |gt300poletime = 2:20.696 |gt500fastestlap = 1:59.523 |gt500fastestlapnation = |gt500fastestlapdriver = Ronnie Quintarelli |gt500fastestlapteam = MOLA Racing |gt500fastestlapnumber = ? |gt300fastestlap = 2:09.877 |gt300fastestlapnation = |gt300fastestlapdriver = Kota Sasaki |gt300fastestlapteam = R&D Sport |gt300fastestlapnumber = ? |gt500winner = Kogure / Duval |gt500winnernation = / |gt500winnerteam = Weider Honda Racing |gt500second = Yanagida / Quintarelli |gt500secondnation = / |gt500secondteam = MOLA Racing |gt500third = Matsuda / Oliveira |gt500thirdnation = / |gt500thirdteam = Team Impul |gt300winner = Yamano / Sasaki |gt300winnernation = |gt300winnerteam = R&D Sport |gt300second = Kageyama / Fujii |gt300secondnation = |gt300secondteam = Hankook KTR |gt300third = Yogo / Orido |gt300thirdnation = |gt300thirdteam = JLOC |}} The 40th International Pokka 1000 km, held at Suzuka Circuit, is a 1000 km endurance race held for the Super GT in . However, due to the Tohoku earthquake back in March, the race was shortened to 500 km. Background Qualifying Q1 GT500 The Q1 session began with a 30-minute mixed period with the two classes running together, and amid interruptions including a red flag, a fastest time for the period was recorded by the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (J.P.L. de Oliveira) with a 1'55.278. This was followed by the No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa) and the No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 (Yuji Tachikawa). However, with three minutes remaining in the last ten minute block for the GT500 cars alone, the order of fastest times began to change rapidly. By the end of the session (Q1) the No.1 Weider HSV-010 (Loic Duval) scored the fastest time at 1'53.991, as the only car to dip under the 54-second barrier. Following with the 2nd and 3rd fastest times respectively were the No.39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Hiroaki Ishiura) and the No. 7 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Koudai Tsukakoshi). GT300 In the final 10 minute period of Q1 for the GT300 machines alone, the teams had to try to finish in the top 16 in order to move on to Q2. The first car to record a time inn the 2'06 range was the No. 88 JLOC Lamborghini RG-3 (Yuhi Sekiguchi) with a 2'06.952. But, Katoh in car No. 2 soon regained the lead with a lap of 2'06.873. In the end, the fastest qualifier of Q1 was car No. 2, followed by the No. 4 HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi), which recorded a fast time late in the session to move into 2nd place. With unexpectedly poor times, the SUGO round's pole position winning No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi) and the Okayama round winner, the No. 66 triple a Vantage GT2, finished 17th and 18th respectively in Q1. Normally these positions would have knocked them out of the competition for Q2, but as a result of the failure of the 11th-place finishing No. 69 ThunderAsia MT900R and the 13th-place No. 7 EVANGELION RT PRODUCTION MODEL-02 DIRECTION to get a qualifying time for one of their drivers, these two teams were eliminated from the Q1 results, allowing cars No. 43 and No. 66 to advance to Q2. Q2 GT500 The Q2 session began at 3:35 in the afternoon. Rain began to fall just before the session's start, causing the entire session to be run in wet conditions and forcing the teams to make all-or-nothing "time attacks" in the rain. With five minutes remaining in the 10-minute session, Ishiura in car No.39 recorded a lead time of 2'09.903, but moments later Quintarelli in car No.46 bettered that with a time of 2'08.867. Then, with one minute remaining Ishiura made another run to recapture the lead with a 2'07.586. This final lap moved him barely ahead of the 2'07.790 time of 2nd-place car No. 1 (Kogure) and the 3rd-place No.17 KEIHIN HSV-010 (Toshihiro Kaneishi) to finish with the fastest time. Meanwhile, the other four Lexus cars besides No. 39 had trouble getting fast times to advance to Q3. GT300 As rain fell and track conditions changed completely for Q2, it was the same No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi) on Bridgestone tires that had performed so well in the rain of the qualifying at the last round in SUGO that emerged with the fastest time of 2'20.957, almost a second faster than the No. 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 (Tetsuya Yamano) in 2nd position. Meanwhile, the fastest qualifier from Q1, the No. 2 EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 Apple Shiden (Katoh) could only manage an 11th-place time, and the ranking leader, the No. 11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka) could only muster a 13th-place time, thus failing to advance to Q3. Q3 GT500 When Q3 started at 4:12 to determine the pole position and the other top grid positions, the rain was falling even harder. Car No.39, the DENSO SARD SC430 (Takuto Iguchi), was the first to run a time attack. But, with the conditions now worse than those of Q2, it was car No. 46, the S Road MOLA GT-R (Masataka Yanagida), that was setting top times with each lap. With two minutes remaining, the No. 1 Weider HSV-010 (Duval) and the No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa) both ran off the track at the Degner Curve, giving evidence to the harsh track conditions. But the slippery track didn't seem to hinder Yanagida in car No. 46 as he scored a time of 2'08.206 to bring his team its second consecutive pole position, following the previous round at SUGO. Taking advantage of the rapidly changing track conditions, the No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R took the PP despite carrying the heaviest load of handicap weights (82 kg) of any car in the competition. The weather is expected to remain unstable for race day and there is no telling which team it will favor. Anticipation mounts as the start draws near. GT300 The rain continued as Q3 was run to determine pole position and the top grid. Here again it was the No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Kosuke Matsuura) that ran the fastest time with a 2'20.696. This time was a full 1.377 seconds faster than the 2nd-place No.33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama), showing the Garaiya's speed in the rain and bringing it a second consecutive GT300 class pole position. Finishing 3rd was last year's winner here at Suzuka, the No.62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 (Kota Sasaki). Fourth position went to the winner of the last round, the No.14 SG CHANGI IS350 (Ryo Orime). Qualifying Results Grid Race Report GT500 The race started at 15:10 with a rolling start. The rain had nearly stopped at this time but the track condition was wet. The air temperature at the start was 26°C. and the track surface temp. 27°C. With some teams choosing shallow-groove and some choosing deep-groove rain tires, the 500 km battle began after the first lap in this, the longest race of the series. As expected, the pole-sitting No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) broke away at the start and began to build a lead. However, as the track continued to dry out, the teams that had chosen shallow-grove rain tires emerged with a decisive performance advantage and began to move up through the field. Leading this charge was the No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Benoit Treluyer). By lap five, No.23 had moved up into 3rd position. It then went on to pass the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (João Paulo Lima de Oliveira) and close in on the No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R. Another car running on shallow-groove rain tires, the No. 32 EPSON HSV-010 (Ryo Michigami), was showing great speed as it moved up to 5th position, only to crash into the barrier on the last corner of that same lap and drop back in the field again. Continuing its charge, the No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R finally moved into the lead on the second turn of the 15th lap and began to pull away from the No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R at a strong pace. The cars that had chosen deep-groove rain tires to start the race began to make early pit stops and change to shallow-groove tires, led by the No.38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 on the 18th lap, while No.23 continued to increase its margin of lead over the 2nd-running No. 46 S Road MOLA GT-R. The No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R finally made its pit stop on the 28th lap, but by that time rain had begun to fall again around the west track and the Nismo team made the decision to send out their second driver, Satoshi Motoyama, with deep-groove tires. By the 33rd lap the No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R was in the lead again, but contrary to the team's prediction, the rain never reached the main track. This made things hard for Motoyama on his deep-groove tires as the track continued to dry out. On the Dunlop Corner of lap 43 Motoyama was finally passed by the No.1 Weider HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure) running on shallow-groove tires. Soon after that, however, the No.100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Naoki Yamamoto) crashed on the 200R turn, bringing out the Safety Car. After the race was restarted on lap 46 with the cars' tires now cool and grip poor, Motoyama in the No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R continued valiantly to try to hold onto 2nd place, but that effort ended when he ran off the track on lap 50. This allowed the No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 (Kazuki Nakajima) and the No. 39 DENSO SARD SC430 (Takuto Iguchi) to move into 2nd and 3rd places respectively. Running in the lead, the No.1 Weider HSV-010 was hit unexpectedly by a GT300 car on the chicane of lap 53 and spun out as a result. This allowed the No.36 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 to move up into the lead position. By this point in the race the track was getting even drier, and when the No. 24 ADVAN KONDO GT-R (Bjorn Wirdheim) made its second pit spot on lap 60 and changed to slick tires, the No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Ronnie Quintarelli) and the No.6 ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 (Kazuya Oshima) followed suit and changed to slicks as well. However, with about 20 laps remaining in the race the rain began to fall lightly again, causing the No. 1 Weider HSV-010 (Loïc Duval) and the No.35 D'STATION KeePer SC430 (Juichi Wakisaka) to choose shallow-groove tires. These turned out to be the decisions that would determined the outcome of the race. In the final stages of the race, the No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R (Quintarelli) running on slick tires ran a succession of fastest laps of the race in a blazing charge that moved it into 2nd position just 1.8 sec. behind the leading No.1 Weider HSV-010 (Duval). Then the rain began to fall again, turning the advantage once again to the No.1 Weider HSV-010 and helping it on to its second win of the season. The No.46 S Road MOLA GT-R finished 2nd with the No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R coming home 3rd. GT300 The rain that had been falling up to the time of the race start clearly seemed to be giving the advantage to the No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi) that had won pole position in the rain on Saturday. Takagi got a good start in car No.43 and was followed by the No.33 HANKOOK PORSCHE (Masami Kageyama) and the No.62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 (Kota Sasaki). As Takagi ran in the lead, Kageyama and Sasaki staged a fierce side-by-side battle for 2nd. Sasaki emerged the winner of this contest, giving him the opportunity to chase Takagi. With a lull in the rain, Sasaki picked up the pace. He took the challenge to Takagi and managed to overtake him on lap eight, thus setting his team in position to win its second consecutive Pokka GT race. No. 62 (Sasaki) continued to widen the lead over No. 43 (Takagi) gradually. But then, rain began to fall again after the 25th lap, enabling No. 43 (Takagi) to begin closing the gap and putting pressure on the leader. As both teams delayed in making their pit stops in order to see what the weather would do, it became a race that tested the teams' strategic abilities. The first to return to the pit was the leading No. 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4. Tetsuya Yamano took the wheel for the race's second stint. A few laps later, the No.43 ARTA Garaiya also made its pit stop and changed drivers to Kosuke Matsuura. After the pit stops the battle for the lead between No.62 and No.43 continued. There was a crash after this by the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 that brought out the Safety Car and eliminated the gap between Yamano and Matsuura as the cars rounded the track behind the Safety Car. But, once the race restarted, Yamano (No.62) again began to build a lead over Matsuura (No.43). After the second routine pit stop, it was the No.33 HANKOOK PORSHE (Tomonobu Fujii > Kageyama) that suddenly showed up behind No.62 (now driven again by Sasaki), with both cars now running on slick tires. Kageyama was running at the faster pace and it didn't take him long to go past Sasaki and repay him for being overtaken in the early stages of the race. Meanwhile, No.43 ARTA Garaiya (Takagi) suffered a collision with another car while running in 4th position. This destroyed its margin and eventually brought it to a stop at trackside, where its race ended. Now the battle for the win came down to a duel between Kageyama and Sasaki once again. After being passed, Sasaki continued to stick to Kageyama, and on the spoon turn he moved right onto his tail. On the ensuing 130R turn Sasaki made his move to the inside and the two machines charged through the super-high-speed turn side by side. While Sasaki stuck to the record line, Kageyama's momentum carried him wide and off the track. With this, the duel was over. In the final stages of the race as rain began to fall again, the pace of No.62 (Sasaki) dropped, but behind it No.33 (Kageyama) showed no signs of closing the gap. Sasaki ran on to take the checkered and bring the No. 62 R&D SPORT LEGACY B4 team its second consecutive Pokka GT victory, and its first since last year's Suzuka. Finishing 2nd was the No.33 HANKOOK PORSHE, while the No.87 RIRE Lamborghini RG-3 (Manabu Orido > Atsushi Yogo > Orido) overcame a series of problems to finish 3rd. Racing steadily despite its handicap weight load of 98 kg to finishing 4th and maintain a solid grip on the ranking lead was the No.11 JIMGAINER DIXCEL DUNLOP 458 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka > Tetsuya Tanaka > Hiranaka). After a bad tire choice in the early stages of the race that dropped it to 11th position the No.4 HATSUNEMIKU GOODSMILE BMW (Nobuteru Taniguchi > Taku Bamba) came charging back in the final stint with Taniguchi at the wheel after an early switch to slick tires to finish 5th. Results GT500 GT300 * = Direction Racing did not qualify but was allowed to race. Standings after race GT500 GT300 Category:2011 Races Category:Races Category:Suzuka Circuit Races Category:Pokka 1000 km Races